Easily create flashcards from Google spreadsheet data using Flippity. Simple directions offer clear instruction about downloading the template and entering data terms. Publish data and receive the url for viewing and sharing your flashcard set. Completed sets offer options for viewing either side of cards, moving through the set, and reloading/reshuffling the set. While registration is not required for this tool, you do need a Google account. Flippity also offers several other activities you may find useful such as Quiz Show, Spelling Words, Mad Lib, Badge Tracker, and others.

In the Classroom

This is a fantastic tool for vocabulary development in any subject area! Create flashcards for your classes or have them make their own using individual or a whole class Google account. Use them as an introduction to a concept, then again in the practice of the concept, and again as a final review. It is a nice three-for-one deal! Use with science terms or for standardized test preparation. Have students create flashcards and share with each other to quiz themselves within their own groups. Encourage students in upper grades to create their own spreadsheet and flash card sets. Show them how to carefully read through their classroom notes and underline the most important word or words in a sentence. Then have them leave out the most important words for their flashcards. Learning support teachers might want to have small groups create cards together to review before tests. Have students create flash card sets to "test" classmates on what they "teach" in oral reports. Create and collect sets of vocabulary cards for your world language or ESL/ELL classes.

Discover the vast professional resources available at TeachersFirst. Explore the timesaving (and easy to use) tools for differentiating, reading resources, rubrics, timesavers, and more. Browse through "must-know" professional topics such as cyber bullying and copyright. Navigate the treasure-filled professional section of TeachersFirst. This session is for teachers at ALL technology comfort levels.

As a result of this session and through individual follow-up, teachers will: Explore the various online professional tools and articles available at TeachersFirst. Find ways to save time using TeachersFirst for planning lessons. Explore to find materials relevant to your own classroom needs. (Follow-up) Plan and implement a student-centered, curriculum-related use of the resource(s) of choice as part of an upcoming teaching unit. Or plan how to use a professional tool (or article) to improve learning in your own classroom. Applicable NETS-T standards (2008)*: 1b, 2a and b, 3d * The text of these standards is copyrighted. Please read the full text at ISTE's NETS-T page.

In the Classroom

Not overly familiar with the FREE professional resources available at TeachersFirst? This is a great introduction. Learn about our tools for differentiating, reading resources, rubrics, timesavers. Find the important professional topics: cyber bullying, copyright, and more. Share the resources page with a friend. Or better yet, view this archived webinar together! Take a look at the resource page full of GREAT ideas! >. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.

Practice and learn basic words and vocabulary in Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, German, Czech, and Russian. Imendi is a flash card type activity featuring various languages in a drag and drop format. Choose your language to begin. You can also choose between a random lesson or use the "all words" option. Match new language terms to the English word then quickly view results and start over with a new set of cards. These are quick and easy reviews. Use the non-English speaking option to translate from any included language back to English.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Use this tool with your ESL/ELL students. If you teach world languages, this site is a great review of various languages. Looking for some enrichment for your gifted students? Share this site and help them to learn a new language (or at least several key vocabulary words). Have students compare the words for the same thing across various languages to notice relationships among the languages. Make simple posters of words for different themes, such as foods, in several different languages using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard (reviewed here). Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Have students try out this site on individual computers, or as a learning center.

Word Counter is a powerful, simple tool for anyone who writes. Paste in the text of your own writing (a paper, a blog post, a letter, etc.) and see how many times you repeat a word. Choose to include "small words" (the, it, etc.) in the count or not. Search your writing by roots and choose how many words you want the site to list. Repetition of words is boring for your reader and often shows "lazy" word choice. Try using this program and Big Huge Thesaurus, reviewed here, to spice up your writing. Make revision for word choice one of the steps in your writing process.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Demonstrate the use of Word Counter on your Interactive Whiteboard. Once the redundant words have appeared on the program, display the text they came from and have students make suggestions for stating the sentences in a different way, or using synonyms. Post a link to Word Counter on your webpage for parents and students to use at home. Use Word Counter for your own writing in newsletters home, emails to parents, graduate work, and notes to administration. Be sure to share Word Counter with your colleagues.

Vidtionary is a video dictionary defining words through images (and videos). The short videos include the word said aloud and shown in print, with sound effects or engaging music in the background. Browse entries using the search bar or view featured collections. Browse alphabetically or explore collections. Because of the wide range of topics and difficulty levels, these vocabulary words could be used with any age. Video lengths run less than one minute per definition, many as short as 10-15 seconds. Originally designed to teach English to speakers of Korean and Japanese, the visual nature of the site appeals to all language learners.

In the Classroom

While this site is ideal for any student learning new vocabulary, it is especially useful for ESL/ELL students or speech/language students with vocabulary deficits. Share selected videos in primary grades to help students see how new words are defined and spelled. Challenge your gifted students to find new vocabulary words to share with the class. Use in any classroom as a model (sharing on your interactive whiteboard or projector). Then assign cooperative learning groups to create Vidtionary inspired videos of their own to explain curriculum terms, world language vocabulary, or SAT words. Use a tool like Moovly, reviewed here, and share them on a site such as TeacherTube, reviewed here.

"See" daily news headlines in illustration form on this clever blog created by illustrator/designer Maria Fabrizio. Each day she chooses a headline to illustrate in a sort of visual riddle, and she also includes the link to the article that inspired it. The result: an engaging visual prompt that tempts your guess at one of the day's top stories. The news sources vary among various mainstream U.S. news sources, such as the New York Times, NBC, NPR, or USA Today. Challenge yourself to stay up to date and think visually. Cycle back through the daily entries since early 2013 or search by clickable tags to see the breadth of news represented here and find related stories. You can also sign up to receive the daily stories via email.

In the Classroom

Encourage students to connect with current events by sharing the daily post (or one per week) on your projector or interactive whiteboard as students enter homeroom or settle in for the start of class. If you teach reading, this is the perfect way to entice students to READ informational texts with a visual image in mind, adding a purpose to their reading of non-fiction. This is a very creative way to practice close reading, as students look for the reasons behind the illustrator's choices. Extend the activity by challenging students in reading OR social studies classes to create their own Wordless News illustrations to reflect a news story they find on their own. Share the challenges on a class wiki for other students to "guess" and include the links to the stories. Art teachers can use this blog as an example of the many ways artists find inspiration in everyday life. Even the very young can "draw" a news story they read. ESL/ELL teachers can use these illustrations to build speaking vocabulary as students discuss and guess the news stories and practice their language skills reading the actual text. Use this blog in social studies class to inspire historic " wordless news" stories with accompanying articles written by students (or primary source stories from the time). What would the illustration and article be like for the Emancipation Proclamation?

iPracticeMath is a great self-paced site for teaching, reinforcing and reviewing math skills for all grade levels. Download unlimited worksheets, take quizzes and assessment tests, and monitor progress through user activity reports. Although membership isn't necessary, free on-site enrollment allows users access to additional activities and reports not available otherwise. Be sure to check back option to find new topics added monthly.

In the Classroom

Add a link to classroom computers for use during math centers. Be sure to share a link with parents on your class website or newsletter for math practice at home. Differentiate content based on individual student's needs. If you wish, encourage parents to create individual student accounts to track progress and share with you throughout the school year. Have them email reports or print them out and send to school with younger ones. If you and the parent wish to "share" a login, you could work together to support struggling students. Learning support teachers and ESL/ELL teachers will find this simple tool a great asset in the classroom.

Create animations using a wide variety of characters, props, templates, and backgrounds with this free tool. Easily upload your own images. Add your own music or voice overs. Even though this is a very easy to understand tool, be sure to check out the tutorial after registering. The handy templates allow you to "re-use" a sample, adding your own text to a video that already has music, special effects, and more! No "techy" expertise needed. View the sample Wideos. Visit the gallery for more ideas. Add characters, props, backgrounds, and more with the plus button along the top left. View the timeline for your scene along the bottom. Flip, zoom, or arrange items on your page using buttons above the timeline. To animate your object, drag the character where you would like them to move. Your animation can either be private or public! Check out a video on Wideo here.

In the Classroom

Wideo is much like Go Animate reviewed here. However, Wideo's advantage is in the ability to upload your media. (Note: This could be a disadvantage if inappropriate material from the general public is uploaded. The site does have a public gallery, but nothing inappropriate was viewable at the time of this review. It is always wise to check the gallery prior to using in class (or simply steer the class away from the gallery.) This tool has a wide variety of applications for the classroom. Have students make an animation about a historical figure or a character in a novel. As students write their own story, use Wideo to animate the characters. Use Wideo to explain lab procedures or make a commercial about the superpowers of an element. If you use a template, the work will be quick and can focus on content instead of glitz. Students can explain vocabulary words, chemical equations, solving for X and more. Challenge your gifted students to create an entire animated series. ESL/ELL or world language students could create animations to practice or explain their new vocabulary. Use one of the templates to "advertise" an upcoming class project or even the daily homework assignments on your class we page. Have students help create ads for new books in the library!

Explore the vast diversity of language in the United States through a variety of dialectical maps. What is your dialect? Click on Take this survey and find out to access the New York Times site that currently shares 25 of the questions in the survey. Then use the Dialectic Survey Maps site to understand the results more fully. Choose the dialect question from the dropdown at the left to see maps of results. Selections are color coded so it is easy to see where each result is on the map. There are 122 items on the survey and three types of maps to display the results for each item. See results via Static, Click(able), and City maps. Click on an area on the Static map or select one of the hundreds of City maps to get results in percentages by color.

In the Classroom

Use your projector to show your class the different dialects for different areas of the U.S. Choose one of the kid-popular questions, i.e. Do you call a carbonated drink a soda, pop, or Coke? Show students how the results for your geographical area compare to others. If the New York Times site is still available, have students try the survey themselves for homework. Help students to notice that language is dynamic and changes according to region. Emphasize that using a dialect is not incorrect. They do not represent a language deficiency. Speaking a vernacular dialect is not the result of poor or incomplete language learning. Correctness in language is a matter of social acceptability. Though there is a "standard" English taught in schools, dialects must be respected as evidence of social identity and linguistic expertise. What are some examples students can give for special ways their family says something? What about in a social context, as in country western fans vs rapper fans? This site is also helpful for ESL/ELL and world language students to REALIZE that pronunciations and word choice vary and can identify where the speaker is from.

Use polltogo to create polls for user response during a meeting or class time. Connect with your audience in many ways. Create a question and select type of answers, how long the poll will last, password or not, and more options. Receive notifications about your poll via your email. Each poll is free for twenty people to vote. Tweet about polltogo and receive another thirty credits so thirty more people can vote. Choose to receive results (via email) after every vote or at the end of the voting period. Interim and final results can also be viewed online. Another great feature is embedding the results link into a PowerPoint or Keynote slide to project results during a presentation. Polltogo is a device-agnostic voting tool and will auto-adapt to display on any mobile or desktop device.

In the Classroom

Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. One of the question choices for polltogo is "Feedback" which is perfect for formative assessment or asking what students need help with after a lesson. Use this site to vote for correct answers in math class, project ideas for science or social studies, social issues in current events, and practically any other subject area. Encourage students to incorporate polls during class presentations as a test to see who is listening or for questions the audience might have. Use polltogo to make parent polls and post on a class website to keep the lines of communication open.

This site offers a large collection of math instructional videos all in Spanish. Topics include Algebra 1 and Geometry topics such as finding slope, using Scientific Notation, and solving equations. Scroll through the links to choose and view videos. Each video includes a printed Spanish transcript for easy download in a PDF version. Easily share videos using links provided for many social networking sites and email.

In the Classroom

Share these videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. These are ideal for Spanish speaking students. Why not crossover math and Spanish lessons and do a unit together? Be sure to include this site on your class web page for students to access both in and outside of class for further practice. Share this link on your website for any student (or parent) who may benefit from hearing directions in Spanish. ESL/ELL students and their teachers will love this find! If you teach math with many ELL students, these videos can help you learn Spanish terminology to sprinkle into your classes. Why not have students create some of their own bilingual math videos to help their classmates and future students?

Explore 900 free audio books. Scroll to below the ads to see the actual booklist. This collection includes classics and contemporary literature. Books come in a variety of formats, from e-files to MP3's to Youtube. The alphabetical list indicates which format or formats each book is available. This easy-to-read site is, however, cluttered with ads and links to other resources.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Students could download independent reading books onto their portable devices. This is perfect for a BYOD or 1:1 classroom. Remind students of this great collection before breaks and summer vacations! Provide this link on your class website. Begin a classroom review magazine. Have students create mindmaps about characters or the plot. Challenge students to write summaries and other types of responses to the books they read. Have the students use a tool like Zoho Show (similar to Powerpoint, but easier and free) - reviewed here. ESL and special education students may find it useful to listen to books they are reading in class, if those titles are available.

Disappointed that your favorite book or TV series has ended? Satisfy your craving on FanFiction. Discover FanFiction stories written by up-and-coming writers based on your favorite comic, cartoon, movie, book, television show, or other genre. Read and vote for your favorites or even write your own. Whether you are a fan of fiction or like to dabble with writing, take a look at FanFiction. Fanfiction authors write new stories about characters from their favorite books (movies, TV series, etc.). Read to your heart's content and leave a comment without even signing in. To create and submit your own writing you need to sign up with an email. Click on the genre of your choice to get started! This site can be accessed in a variety of languages. Click the small "mobile forum" icon at the top to use on mobile iOs or Android devices.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

It is amazing how students will polish their writing for an authentic audience! Demonstrate how to use FanFiction with your projector or interactive whiteboard. Show students the different genres and have them read a selection or two from an amateur writer to see how it works. Have student pairs or trios work together on a piece for a favorite book. There is also a miscellaneous category you could use to have students add a different ending or write from a different point of view based on any short story you use in class. They can also submit in the poetry category. Use 121 Writing reviewed here to proof student writing and make suggestions (verbally if your choose to) before they submit to FanFiction. For students to develop and polish their writing skills, use a program such as Slick Write reviewed here. Create a FanFiction account with a class email and have students work on their piece using a nickname or acronym. Since FanFiction can be accessed in several languages, this program would work well in an ESL/ELL classroom.

This tool creates collection boards for video resources and is a tool for knowledge seeking. Review and choose good videos to collect and curate on various boards. Share video resources or whole boards with others. Click on a video to watch or hover over it and click on "Collect." You can also search Zeeik for specific items by using the search bar. Many of the videos are hosted on YouTube. View the videos within Zeeik to bypass the YouTube comments -- which may or may not be appropriate. This tool is still in Beta, and more features are planned. If your district blocks YouTube, some of the videos may not be viewable. You could always view the videos at home and bring them to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid reviewed here to download the videos from YouTube.

In the Classroom

Find how-to videos or videos on a curriculum topic in this tool. Create a Zeeik for your class to use to view videos selected by you for any topic and in any subject. In primary grades, create a Zeeik for students to access as a center and answer questions or complete a drawing about the topic. Create a class account for students to curate videos for the rest of the class to comment and rate them. Share your Zeeik with students and parents by placing the link on your web page. ESL/ELL teachers will like the ease of collecting videos to reinforce language skills.

Have fun creating sentences or short messages (like tweets) using drag and drop words at Twitter Magnets! Twitter Magnets calls them poems, though the length limit is a real challenge for poets! Choose from the words offered. Drag and drop the magnets into the message area at the bottom -- up to 120 characters. The tool keeps a character count for you. Need different words? Click the swap words link for new choices. Click submit to view your message/poem and decide whether to submit to Twitter Magnet's Twitter feed or not. You can also link to send from your own Twitter account. Note that clicking to see the Twitter Magnets feed will show you "messages" and poems created by the general public. Steer clear or preview to be sure these are appropriate in your setting.

In the Classroom

Create a message or "poem" of the day as a class to send from your class Twitter account. Use as a center activity or have student groups create their own messages about what you have learned today in any subject area class. Have ELL students create simple messages to reinforce language skills. If you don't have a Twitter account, just have students create offline messages. Take a quick screen shot, then write, illustrate, and share on your classroom bulletin board! Generate creative messages as a class to use as writing prompts. Have students tell the story (or nonfiction news account) about what caused the message. Looking for more ways to use Twitter in the classroom? Read more about Twitter at TeachersFirst's Twitter for Teachers page. You can also use this site as a tool to teach about digital citizenship and the etiquette of tweets.

Find Me Words is a word generator that finds words in many different ways. You can simply type your word into the text box and click Find! Options include: Find Me a Word, Words With Letters, Definitions, Synonyms, Antonyms, and Scrabble. Enter letter combinations, look for words of a certain length or with a certain root or prefix. There is a lot here to explore. Tread carefully allowing students to search on their own as some more mature content/vocabulary is included.

In the Classroom

Add a technology twist to your word study program. Share this site on your interactive whiteboard or projector and explore together with your students. In your phonics block, go further by looking at word patterns, beginning sounds, and ending sounds. In your Greek and Latin roots study, search for words by prefix or suffix. Use as a resource for writer's workshop, using the synonyms and antonyms. Increase vocabulary with the definitions. Make words into an exploratory "game" using this site. Have students collect favorite word discoveries on their own wiki page.

This simple site asks you to add all necessary punctuation to sentences. You can try again until all marks are in the correct places. Options include getting a hint, solving, starting over, or checking.

In the Classroom

Since there are no directions or examples, you may need to demonstrate how to use this site with a projector or interactive whiteboard before the students use it. This site makes for engaging morning work while students write the sentence at their desks (or better yet, work on individual devices). Bookmark this site on your classroom computers for extra practice when teaching direct quotations. ESL/ELL students and learning support students may find the extra practice useful. Use this site to review for a punctuation test.

Find high interest, leveled news articles (and lessons) for English language learners. Although this site was designed for ESL/ELL it could be very useful in any elementary classroom looking for informational texts that can be differentiated for various reading levels (great for meeting Common Core standards). This tool could be used with any readers to increase comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary skills. There are three difficulty levels. Complete the Test Your Level exercise in the pop-up box after you first get to the home page to find out what level will be best for you. Many of the lessons include audio and practice exercises. In addition, interesting pictures pique the students' interest. The same story is presented in all of the various levels. The vocabulary at lower levels repeats at the higher levels with more vocabulary added as the level increases. Definitions for the vocabulary words, below the reading, assists with English meanings. The audio is hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, you could always listen the audio at home and bring it to class "on a stick" to share. Use a tool such as KeepVid, reviewed here, to download the audio from YouTube. At the time of this review, most of the news story content was fine for all ages. However, please preview the story before you share it with your class to be certain it is appropriate.This site includes advertising.

In the Classroom

Add this website to your classroom computers, websites, and newsletters for parents of ESL/ELL students or beginning readers. This tool is especially helpful at the beginning of the year, as you are learning students' reading levels. Use this tool to differentiate in all primary classes. Although this site was created for English Language Learners, it could still be used by all students including gifted and learning support. Differentiate for your advanced/gifted students in elementary, while meeting Common Core standards of Informational Text. Use these news articles as informational text meeting your Common Core goals. Assign students of different levels the same story at the appropriate level or build skills by sharing the same story as a class. Challenge groups to compare the stories in pairs. Have students create a visual presentation of the story. First have students create a rough draft of their comic using Printable Comic Strip Templates, reviewed here. For Level 1 readers have them create their final comic using Comic Creator, reviewed here, for Level 3 readers use Write Comics, reviewed here.

Word Sense is a dictionary and thesaurus presented in a unique, interactive display. Enter your word in the search box and view the definition. Click on any of the related terms to view definitions and connections from the associated words. Use links to go directly to the definition of any associated word or term to continue exploring and understanding terms. There is a link to "Learn How it Works" to learn more about the possibilities at this site. We strongly recommend that you explore how it works first! Note: This is a full service dictionary, so ANY word is available for search, including those not appropriate at school. Use caution with less mature students searching independently. Be certain to set clear expectations and consequences for inappropriate searches.

In the Classroom

Have students create a word cloud of the important terms they learn from this site. Explore word meanings, connotations, and antonyms. Use a word cloud maker to create clouds of new words learned: Wordle (reviewed here), Tagxedo (reviewed here), or WordItOut (reviewed here). Use Word Sense to understand and explore vocabulary words of the day or week. Share with students as a resource for preparing for standardized testing, such as the SAT/ACT.

This simple, free tool can shorten or summarize an otherwise long passage or text. Simply copy and paste the text passage into the text box. Specify the percentage of summarization (there is a slider you can drag to the percentage that you want). Text Compactor produces a shortened version below the original. Summarization of text is now easy and fast. Be sure to mention to any student using this site the importance of not plagiarizing and using only original writing. To learn more about how the tool works (and possibly consider some of its "short" comings), see "About."

In the Classroom

Use this resource when reducing original passages (not plagiarized) to fit a specific number of words or characters. Use this resource when teaching summarization. Paste in a text to summarize and discuss/brainstorm what makes a great summary. Challenge students to look for ways that the tool may have actually missed an important concept through its automated process. Have the class decide whether their own summary or the one offered by this tool is best -- and why. Use this tool as one of many angles on revision during the writing process. Have students paste in their own writing to see what ideas "show" as the most important and to consider revising to emphasize what they really intended to say. If your emails get a bit too wordy, try this tool to shorten them! Shorten your assignment descriptions to make them easier for your ESL/ELL students and lower level readers to understand.